


And I Can't Stand Blood

by orphan_account



Series: Kings of New York [4]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Gen, Murder, newsies au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-19
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-27 16:40:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6292099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Aaron had woke up this morning, he had not expected to see Alexander covered in blood.  </p>
<p>He hadn’t expected to help dispose of a body. </p>
<p>Yet both of those thing were currently happening.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And I Can't Stand Blood

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of my Newsies AU.  
> It takes place in the late 1800s.  
> Alex and Aaron are both 14 in this story.

When Aaron had woke up this morning, he had not expected to see Alexander covered in blood.  He also hadn’t expected to help dispose of a body.  Yet both of those thing were currently happening.

He often walked by Maria Reynold’s theatre while selling papers everyday.  He knew that many of the other boys would come by and watch a show when they had some extra money, but he’d never watched a show himself.

Today as he was walking by the theatre, he saw Alex standing outside.  He knew that Alex would often visit the theatre.  He’d heard that he and Maria were very close, which made several of the other boys jealous. 

He was planning on just walking by and hoping that Alexander wouldn’t notice him.  However, he stopped when he realized that there was blood all over Alex’s hands and shirt.  The rest of the papers he was holding slipped out of his hands and fell to the sidewalk as he rushed over to Alex to see if he was hurt. 

“Alexander, what the hell happened?  Are you hurt?”

Alexander was breathing heavily, probably panicking.  It took him a while to catch his breath and respond.  Tears started streaming down his face.  “It’s...The blood’s not mine,” he finally managed to say.  “I killed him, Aaron.   _ I killed him _ .”

Aaron didn’t know how he was supposed to respond to that, so he just grabbed onto Alex, wrapped his arms around him, and held him close, not caring about the blood he’d be getting on his shirt.  He felt Alex cling on to his shirt as he began to sob.  

“You need to calm down, Alexander,” he said.  “Can you tell me what happened?   _ Who _ did you kill?”

Alex didn’t respond.  He just cried even harder.

Aaron sighed.  “How about we go inside?  You probably don’t want anybody else to see you covered in blood like this. “

When Alex refused to respond again, Aaron basically dragged him into the theatre.  On the floor, off to the right of the entrance was what Aaron assumed was the person Alexander had claimed to kill.  Next to the body was the owner of the theatre, Maria.

Aaron stood there staring at the body with wide eyes.  He felt Alexander pull himself away from him and he finally started to speak.  “I’m sorry Maria.  I’ll make sure Aaron doesn’t tell anybody.  He’s my friend. I know he won’t.” He turned to look at Aaron. “Right?”

Aaron nodded slowly.  “Who is that?” he asked gesturing to the dead man on the floor.

It was Maria who answered. “He  _ was _ my husband.”  

“He was hurting her,” said Alex. He wiped some of his tears off with the back of his hand, and ended up smearing blood all over his face.  “I didn’t know what else to do.  I don’t like seeing my friends hurt, so I grabbed the nearest prop, and started hitting him with it, and the next thing I know he’s dead.”  He started sobbing again.  “Now I’m gonna get arrested.”

The room was quiet for a moment before Aaron spoke up.  “I’ll help,” he said.

Both Maria and Alexander looked over at him.  

“What do you mean?” Alex asked.

“I’ll help get rid of the body,” he replied.  “That way nobody has to get arrested.”

“If we get caught we’ll all get in trouble.”

“We won’t get caught.  You just need to calm down and  _ not _ act like you just murdered somebody.”

“What’ll we do with the body?” Maria asked.

“I’m not sure yet,” Aaron replied.

Nobody spoke for a moment.  

“I have an idea,” said Maria.  “I have some barrels in the basement.  We might be able to stuff him inside one.  You two can help with that, and I’ll do the rest, okay?”

Both of the boys nodded, and Maria disappeared to go get one of the barrels.  She came back just a few minutes later. 

For the next hour or so the three of them worked on stuffing James Reynolds’ body into the barrel and cleaning up all the blood on the floor of the theatre.  

Maria had just left with the boys’ shirts to scrub the blood out of them, so nobody would ask them what happened.  

Aaron had already used a damp cloth to wipe the blood off his hands, and was currently cleaning off the blood on Alex who wouldn’t do it himself.  He had started crying again, but Aaron prevented him from wiping his face until all the blood was gone, so he wouldn’t smear anymore.

“Thanks for taking care of me,” said Alex.  “I know I’m a mess right now.  I’m still scared somebody’s going to find out.”

“Nobody’s going to find out,” Aaron responded.  “Maria’s going to get rid of the body tonight, and tomorrow morning she’s going report that he’s missing  to the police.  We’ve already cleaned up the blood.  The only way people will find out is if one of us tells them.  We also need to act like nothing’s wrong.”

“I know,” he said.  “I’ll try to act normal.”

Maria walked back in the room and tossed them their now clean shirts.  “You two should probably get going before Washington locks you out for the night.  I can handle everything else.”

The two of them thanked her for cleaning their shirts then left the theatre and started making their way back to the lodging house.  

“I’m really sorry for ruining your day,” said Alex. 

“It’s fine.  I only had a few papers left to sell anyways.”

As soon as they arrived back at the lodging house, Alex started to act like he usually did.  He fooled around with some of the other boys, and joined in a game of cards.  Although he was acting like he usually did, Aaron was still able to tell that he wasn’t actually feeling any better.

Aaron climbed into his bunk, and tried to go to sleep.  The sounds of the other boys made sleeping hard enough, but it had finally hit him that he had helped dispose of a body.  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself down.  He eventually did manage to fall asleep, it just took longer than normal.

***

After a few days had passed, Aaron was starting to feel like everything was getting back to normal.  That was when Alexander suddenly came running up to him, shoving a newspaper in his face. 

Aaron looked at the picture on the front page, unable to read the words.  It looked like the barrel they had put James Reynolds in.  “Is that...the barrel?” he asked.

Alexander nodded.  “Didn’t you read the paper today? Anyways, the found the body.  They interviewed Maria about it, and she acted like she was really sad in it, so I think we’re safe.”  He actually smiled for the first time since the incident.  “I’m not going to get arrested. They have no idea who might have killed him.”

“That’s great,” said Aaron.  “I hope this means you’ll be feeling better too.”

Alexander nodded.  “I feel great today.  I’m not worried anymore.  I don’t just have to pretend like I’m happy all the time, because I’m actually happy now.  Maybe the nightmares will finally stop."  


Aaron doubted that.  There was no way somebody would be able to get over murdering somebody just like that, but he smiled at Alex and said, "I'm sure they'll go away now."

"Well I still have some papers to sell, so I'll see you later," Alex said as he ran off.

  
After the article on James Reynolds’ death came out, Aaron went back to his normal routine of ignoring Alexander and making excuses not to have to talk to him.  He really did care about him, but he just couldn’t stand to be around him because of his stupid feelings. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any questions or anything, my tumblr is kingof-santafe.


End file.
